A few years ago I decided it was time I moved my yoga journey along to the next level. I did what I had been dreaming of for some time, threw caution to the wind (hoping it wasn’t blowing in the wrong direction and going to come back and hit me in the face), gave up my job, spent my savings and booked into a yoga retreat in the foothills of the Himalayas, for what turned out to be an absolutely life changing experience.
Beside myself with excitement, everywhere I turned there were opportunities to learn, I had the feeling of being a child again! I found myself chanting at 5am as I watched the sun come up, the experience of internal cleansing with my neti pot (and inhaling far too much salty water!), sleeping yoga (yep, really!), dancing meditation (strangely exhilarating) ……and the absolute awesome feeling of total contentment while sitting watching the sun set over the sacred Ganges after a full ritual of cleansing. I really did feel blessed.

 

As a yoga teacher one of the things I always found difficult to admit to was that I had never really got to grips with meditation. Maybe it was the environments I typically found myself practicing and teaching that this aspect of yoga was neglected in favour of asana (physical movement). So this was one of my goals while away on my adventure, to see if I was able to experience the elusive (to me!) benefits we all hear about.

 

Any meditation I had tried up until this point had been a few minutes at the beginning or end of class, so had not had time to become too uncomfortable. So there I was imagining I looked like a pro, hands in gyan mudra, face muscles relaxed, long spine perfectly stacked. And as I took the obligatory deep breath (yep, right down into my belly)……..all kinds of thoughts came pouring like a waterfall into my mind. I think Buddha may have had me in mind when talking about our minds being like a tribe of chattering monkeys! 

 After only a few minutes added to the problem of my thoughts I began to slump, my long spine hunched, hips crying out for mercy as I became progressively more like I was being tortured. Only 10 minutes in and the waterfall of thoughts filling my mind were now about pain and how I was going to stop myself moving around as I was starting to distract those around me.
I decided to try lying down, oh pure paradise feeling the mat under me, hips relaxed, easy breathing, sounds starting to fade into the background…… in no time at all I had slipped into a blissful snooze! Sitting myself back up and wondering when this agony was going to end I saw Guru Vishnu walking towards me. Now the waterfall of thoughts changed to ‘I wonder if anyone has ever been thrown out of a retreat before??’ But our ever vigilant Guru was bringing me a meditation cushion. Which is when I noticed all the seasoned meditators with the expression of delight shining from them seemed to be using one.

Using a meditation cushion was a game changer for me. Allowing just the right amount of elevation for your hips allowing them to roll forward, letting the knees lower, allowing the lower back to release any stress. After your lower back relaxes, the spine aligns back to the correct position and the entire body follows. With a bit of practice and my meditation cushion I eventually learned to sit in stillness, losing all sense of time and my long to-do list. I’m hooked and now I truly understand what it meditation does for our well being and peace of mind in this whirlwind life. I can’t say since I came home I have been able to devote the time I would like to meditate but I do still do as much as I can.

The meditations cushions we make are, after some trial and error and a few design tweaks and much testing, internally padded and the perfect height to allow you to sit with a straight spine, hips relaxed,wonderfully aligned allowing you to effortlessly follow your breath and drift into a meditative bliss.

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